1. The Development of Statistical Business Registers in
MALDIVES

2. Outline Structure of the SBR Information sources
Technological environment
Updating and maintenance processes
Uses of statistical business registers
Issues and challenges
Ongoing initiatives and long-term plans

3. 1. Structure of the SBR
The SBR data is not primarily collected by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for compilation of economic Statistics.
The Statistics Division has collected data from public authorities for set up of a Business Register for a sampling frame for Economic Survey which was held in 2012, however due to different issues faced it could not be used.

4. 1. Structure of the SBR cont…
In Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA), following fields are available. However, the law prevents them from sharing to any organisation.
Type of organisation: Individual or company
Name
Address
Permanent address
Name of Atoll
Name of Island
Name of district
Mailing address
ISIC code
Registration for GST
Telephone & Fax

5. 2. Information sources Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA):
The Statistics Division has collected data from different public authorities for set up of a Business Register that can be used as a sampling frame
Ministry of Economic Development :
(Registered)
Companies
Individual establishments
Co-operative societies
Partnerships
Foreign Investments
Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA):
(Annual/ monthly fee paid)
Companies
Individual establishments
Co-operative societies
Partnerships

6. 2. Information sources cont…
Ministry of Tourism:
Resorts
Guest Houses
Safari Vessels
Travel agencies
Tour guides
Dive centers
Maldives Pensions Administration Office (MPA)
Those who have registered in Pension
Ministry of Education:
Education providers
Tuition Classes
Ministry of Health:
Hospitals
Clinics
Health Centers

7. 2. Information sources cont…
Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture
Vessels (dhoani)
Uninhabited Islands
Agricultural Plots
Ministry of Housing:
NGO’s

8. Problems in existing lists
2. Information sources cont…
Problems in existing lists
Administrative data
Updating the company register
Not all registered companies are in operation, difficulties to find their locations
Annual company reports
Not all companies maintain annual reports, not in a standard format
Different accounting system
Survey data
Incomplete survey frame
Inadequate information
Different level of information required

9. Further improvements 2. Information sources cont…
Specific methodology for non captured sectors--
Fishing vessels, Transport, Real estate, major agricultural islands and slots leased
Need a list frame for some of the above mentioned activities
Maintain updated company/establishment register 9

10. Difficulties faced 2. Information sources cont…
All those lists are not in the same format.
No common identification number
No data on the activity carried out by the establishment
No information about whether the establishment is under a company or not
No information about the employment
MIRA is hesitant to transfer data to SD about sales (turnover), wages and salaries paid and employment at the enterprise level.
Mira has mentioned that the law prevents them from doing so.

11. 3. Technological environment
Describe the IT and computing system in place to support the SBR
As we don’t have a SBR for statistical use in our country we can’t answer these questions however if we have a SBR we can host it in our server and use PC’s that we already have. The specs are as follows
Server
Processor
Intel Xeon Processor 2.5 GHz,
8MBLevel 3 Cache
Six (6) Cores
Motherboard
SATA II support
RAM upgradeable to 64GB
Integrated sound capabilities
RAM
16 GB RAM
DDR 3 Dual Channel
Hard Disk Drive
(FOUR) 1TB SATA ll
Storage Controller
RAID0, RAID1, RAID 1+0, RAID 5
Optical Drive
Internal 16x DVD Drive
Video Interface
8MB video memory, shared
Network Interface
4 Port Gigabit Server Adapter
Operating System
Genuine licensed 64-bit server operating system / windows server 2016 Standard

12. 3. Technological environment cont…PC
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Series or Equivalent 2.5 GHz, 6M Cache
Motherboard
SATA II or higher support
Integrated sound capabilities
Bus Architecture
PCIe / PCI
RAM
8 GB RAM (RAM upgradeable to 12GB) DDR 3 Dual Channel
Hard Disk Drive
1TB SATA II
Optical Drive
Internal 16x DVD Writer / ReWriter
Video Interface
Dedicated 512MB video memory (HDMI, VGA)
Network Interface
•10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet
Operating System
Genuine Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64‐bit
Drivers
All drivers for the supplied operating system

13. 3. Technological environment cont…
Describe the IT and computing system in place to support the SBR
SOFTWARE: Haven’t decided a software. As we don’t have knowledgeable programmers we would like to get training of the software that SBR is going to be developed
NETWORK:can use the existing network which is an internal network
IT SUPPORT: Depends if it is contracted out should have external IT support

14. 4. Updating and maintenance processes
This process is not there because we don’t have a SBR

15. 5. Uses of Statistical Business Registers
Currently there is no SBR
Data were gathered from different administrative sources in order to use a Survey frame (population frame, sampling, extrapolation)
The national accounts relay on source data from a variety of sources for business and government sector

16. 6. Issue and challenges
The main issues and challenges faced in developing, maintaining and using the SBRs:
In Maldives different Businesses are registered in different organizations and its difficult to place together in one place which should be the SBR.
In the tax Authority (MIRA) they try to register all the businesses whether they have to pay tax or not. However if they don’t have to pay tax people don’t bother to register there.

17. 6. Issue and challenges
Following were the issues faced when lists were compiled from different agencies:
Name of the establishments in the list given did not match with the actual name of the establishments.
The contact numbers given were not correct and in some cases there were no contact numbers at all.
The movement of the locations were not updated and hence made it difficult to identify the new location.
The activity carried out in some of the establishments was changed
Permanently closed establishments were not updated to the list

18. 6. Issue and challenges cont…
Possible sustainable solutions to the issues and challenges noted
Statistical Law needed which give authority to NBS to get the individual level data from MIRA
The role of multilateral organizations in addressing these issues and challenges
In order to keep a frame all the authorities should update all the information on annual basis
If following information is updated on a regular basis we can achieve the frame soon
Name of the company, partnership or body of person
Trading name, if any
Description of Business (Update annually): ISIC
Name of responsible person
Address
Telephone, Fax and
Trade name and address of every place of business
Number of workers: (Maldivian and Foreigner)

19. 7. Ongoing initiatives and Long-term plans
Met different organization and highlighted the importance of SBR
MIRA have developed a new application form to register the business.
In that application form ISIC code is now used to code the activity which can be ultimately used as a part of SBR
However, in order to get the employment, turnover etc. statistical law would play a big role.
MED also have developed a database to register business
They incorporated ISIC code in it
However they face many difficulties in coding it because when they register the client don’t know exactly what business that they are going to do
Activating the business register working group/forming a group and working on getting a SBR

20. THANK YOU